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Pivotal Moments: Lucy's Recapture and Retribution
Elfen Lied specializes in great battles to emphasizing the lethality of the Diclonius race and just how ill-matched humans tend to be against them. Though in regards to Lucy's first escape from the Diclonius Research Institute and, later in the manga, in the penultimate climax of the story, her second departure from the facility, they're more like massacres than two-sided battles. The second time, however, she's not content to merely leave, but to destroy the place of her, and so many other Diclonius subjects', imprisonment until there's nothing of it left at all. With the end of the flashback detailing the origin of Lucy and Kurama's feud, a crazed Kurama escapes with Cynthia's remains despite the Agent's attempts to stop him. The Agent has other things to worry about, though, since Lucy is shaking off the paralyzing effects of having her enlarged horns cut off. The Agent wastes no time in shooting off Lucy's other horn, rendering her unconscious, and once more, Lucy is taken deep within the belly of the research facility. However, it is Nyuu who awakens much later, and she finds herself shackled to a wall in a chamber in the underground lake area of the island. Making things worse, she's forced to listen to Chief Kakuzawa's grand plans for Lebensborn and the total remaking of the world. Naturally, his talk of his family's history of discrimination from humans and her being the messiah whose children will repopulate the world flies right over her head, and Nyuu only wishes to go back home to her family. That, and she wants to know if she is this terrible killer everyone fears. Kakuzawa doesn't mince words, and he tells her flat out that yes, her primary personality is a murderer. Worse, she's killed thousands of people without realizing it. The revelation breaks Nyu's heart, and though she wished to go back home, with a heavy heart, Nyu realizes she might not be able to if she's truly the killer he says she is. Ever cruel in his megalomania, Kakuzawa assures her she'll always have a place in his plans; after all, she's the future mother of humankind, whose only purpose is to bear his children. Not giving her a respite from his prattle, Kakuzawa explains that history will repeat itself: humans will go extinct as the Diclonius take over, and it's only natural Humans are uprooted since they squabble amongst each other all the time. They would never accept those born with horns, so killing them is just the next logical step in survival. Nyuu, gaining her spirit back, angrily denies this, since the residents of the Maple House took her in and accepted her as part of their family without once considering her inferior for her horns. She screams that he's the one who took her from her home and from the place she belongs, and her newly formed vectors fly at him, but ultimately stop short of actually touching him. With him out of her reach, she claims she'll live together with humans in spite of everything he's said, and she breaks the cuffs keeping her bound to the wall. Disappointed in his messiah's lack of enthusiasm, Kakuzawa goes outside the chamber to the lake to seat himself and ask Nyuu just where exactly she intends to go when she leaves. After all, who would let a murderer live with them? Nyuu is hesitant, but ultimately, she doesn't waver. She has to go back home, and though she doesn't say what or why, she says she must apologize. When Kakuzawa replies that he won't simply let her go after all the careful preparation for her arrival, Nyuu implies she won't let him stop her. She doesn't even know what she's doing right now, referring to her vectors, in her words, but she won't relent. Before Nyuu can get the chance to attack Kakuzawa, the enormous mass of flesh that was once Anna rises from the depths of the underground lake following Kakuzawa's proclamation that Nyuu, and Lucy by extension, has done nothing but dance in his palm. As Anna's hand comes down, Nyuu's vectors fly up to defend her, but they're no match for the huge hand. Nyuu mentally calls out for Kouta right before Anna's fist smashes down onto her. However, rather than being crushed by Anna's attack, Nyuu is protected as Lucy once more awakens. Her unleashed vectors burst into the air, shielding her. Their aftershocks are so strong, Arakawa can hear them on her laboratory's floor. Moments later, she can see them as they rip an enormous hole through the Diclonius Research Institute, all the way through to the night sky outside. But the problem isn't so simple as just a giant hole stretching throughout the island. The Clone Diclonii, released from their imprisonment from the destruction, wreak havoc against the personnel of the research institute. Inside the grotto, Lucy has successfully torn Anna's monstrous arm off. As Anna's howling fills the underground cavern, Lucy remarks that Kakuzawa pisses her off before she's falling to her knees and coughing up blood, which has never before happened when she used her vectors. The tremendous growth and overuse of her powers are eating away at her body, Kakuzawa explains. It makes no difference to her since she's certain she can cut his head off without it hurting her body more. Anna tries to stop her and brings her remaining arm down to bear, but Lucy cuts that one off as well. Anna doesn't back down, however, and lumbers over her with every intent of crushing Lucy with the sheer weight of her body. Lucy attacks her again, making the massive Diclonius fall just short of her, and Kakuzawa finally admits that that's enough. As he ponders Anna's real predictions and puzzles over why she would attack Lucy when the future was in his grasp, Lucy bitterly wonders why first Kurama then he has meaningful talks with their children in front of her. It's funny, Kakuzawa admits that the Diclonii, who kill their parents yearn for them long after they'd killed them, and asks if she has any lasting affection toward her parents. Lucy has none to give since they abandoned her, as she puts it. She only has it half right, according to Kakuzawa. In a metaphorical bombshell, he reveals it was Lucy's father who abandoned her in the woods, and her mother defied her daughter's preconceived notions and searched tirelessly for her for years. Unfortunately, she was captured by the Diclonius Research Institute and raped to produce another Diclonius child like Lucy. The source of the Diclonius lineage, Kakuzawa says, didn't start with Lucy, but rather, her mother was the actual cause since she was the one giving birth to Diclonius children without being infected by a Silpelit. Her mother was the actual "mutant," and gave birth to the only true male Diclonius, Lucy's half-brother, and Kakuzawa's biological son. The son above steps out from behind a large outcropping of rock and his father continues about how he plans to make himself the god of a new humankind. In addition to making himself such a deity, he aims to restore the strength of his family's horned bloodline by merging it with the blood of Diclonii like Lucy and her brother, the latter of whom already has Kakuzawa blood. His objective, clearly, is to breed Lucy with her new brother and thus spread the Kakuzawa line on within the 'pure' Diclonius race. The boy isn't at all listening to his father and looks delighted to see his sister and eagerly calls out to her. Lucy cares little for his pleasantries, however, and asks as to her mother's fate. Kakuzawa is callous and indifferent as he replies that her mother took her life after giving birth to the boy. Worse still, her body was again used to try and develop more monarch-level Diclonius fetuses after her death through the process of connecting her reproductive system to life support systems, to poor results. Kakuzawa's Lebensborn Project ended with Lucy's mother's death. But now that he has Lucy in his grasp, the project can start anew, and that Lucy should be jumping at the chance to take part. After all, it will create a world more receptive to her, which is what she's wanted all along. As he speaks, Lucy finds herself haunted by the specter of her DNA Voice, who reminds her of the promise she made to remake the world to her liking. However, Lucy recalls Kouta as well. Specifically, she recalls him swearing vengeance for his family, and remembers the real reason she's lived up to that point. As Kakuzawa again implores her to join them, Lucy decapitates both him and his son and laughs at his plans. She states she'll pass on the whole "annihilate mankind" program, and furthermore tells Kakuzawa's bleeding corpse that he was human all along. The horns on his head are just a skull mutation, and he's never been a Diclonius at all. He let it get to his head, she says, and went on making a show. To her brother's corpse, Lucy shows a marked gentleness and remorse. She apologizes for killing him and explains that while he didn't do anything to deserve it, the tragedy of their race has gone on long enough and it's time for it to end. Before she can leave, Anna's hulking body again attempts to attack her, but Lucy laughs and splits its head open. Blood-spattered, Lucy asks if Anna was even listening, and mysteriously comments that it seems Kakuzawa wasn't that cruel of a father. As the cavern begins to crumble, boulders falling to the ground around her, Lucy leaves the area for the facility above. The next time she appears again, Lucy is standing atop the research facility itself after Arakawa is saved by the Vector Attack Craft piloted by the agents of Saseba and after they've retrieved the vital vaccine to the Diclonius Virus. Seeing the threat they pose to her escape, Lucy attacks them, but the vector canceller built into the Vector Attack Craft nullifies her vectors, and the effort of trying to attack them has her coughing up blood again. The craft and its crew retreat, however, as the unstable ground under them begins to crumble, meaning they cannot get close enough to her to kill her. Lucy doesn't go after them and instead escapes in an escape pod offscreen as the island sinks into the ocean, water rushing in to fill the enormous hole she made in it. As it sinks, the Clone Diclonii, any other living Silpelits, and whatever, if any, surviving staff are drowned from the rush of water filling the halls. (article in progress...) Category:Pivotal Moments Category:Kaede Category:Story Related Category:Essays Category:Themes Category:Manga-Only Characters Category:Manga Category:Series Information Category:Article